Page 56 of Justice

“Tobias,not that I want to be the heavy, but, have you prepared yourself in the event she is with someone else, or perhaps a lesbian?”

Tobias raised his eyes from the screen of his cellphone, not bothering with the rest of his body. “Nothing is solid until there is a ring on the finger and her last name changes. If she’s a lesbian, I’ll be the best friend she ever had.”

He’d never admit it, but he hadn’t considered either, too focused on getting Tymeless safely back home, with him.

As the plane landed in Detroit, the early morning sky pink with the first rays of the sun. Tobias gathered his things, and Stetson ended a phone call to the bail bondsman, offering him ten grand to delay getting to the jail.

“An underwriter was found, but I’ve convinced him to have an issue on the way to the jail. He expects cash, and his name forgotten in case anyone sticks their nose in.”

Drake texted, he’d contacted Kumarin, the current Family leader in the area of this visit. Tobias would need to pay his respects. With the early hour, Kumarin agreed to send a representative to collect the sign of goodwill.

“Is he aware of who we are?”

“No, and I’d like to keep it that way, unless we need it.”

Walking down the steps of the plane, Tobias casually looked for the car he was supposed to meet. The SUV he’d rented was parked and running which was good, the air in Detroit was just as cold, if not colder, than in Boston. He could feel the chill in his bones, the time spent in the heat in Georgia sounded good to him right now. He wondered if Tymeless missed the heat, or had she fallen in love with the colder temperatures?

A pair of headlights flashed in the distance as he opened the door of the SUV. Tossing in his bag, he pulled the lapels of his wool coat up to cover his ears and shoved his gloved hands into his pockets as he crossed the tarmac toward the waiting car. He could see his breath in the air and feel the exhaustion of the past twenty-four hours creeping up on him.

When he was a few feet away, the driver’s door opened and a dark figure emerged from the car. The frame was of a smaller person, a woman if his tired eyes weren’t lying to him. As the figure approached, the sun broke above the horizon; he found it was indeed a woman.

Warning bells went off in his head as he took in her appearance, ratty jeans with holes in each knee, a black, band t-shirt, no coat or scarf to ward off the cold. Her eyes rimmed thick with what he assumed was eye makeup.

“You got the money?” Her raspy voice spoke as if she’s smoked from the moment she was born. Her eyes searching, looking behind him and all around.

When he looked to her feet, he found them bare, toes exposed to the elements due to wearing flip-flops.

“Kak dila?” (How are you?)

Kumarin came from Russia, born and raised under the fist of one of the evilest men to ever call himself a boss. Tobias knew enough Russian to get by, the same said for a handful of other languages. If this woman worked for Kumarin, she would know what he said and respond appropriately. When her brows bent in confusion, his hand went for his gun, as another set of headlights bounced across the gravel road.

“Get in the car, JoJo!” A male voice yelled from the back seat as the sounds of gunshots severed the silence of the early morning. The woman dropped like a rock, her eyes open and a pool of blood forming under her body. Tobias didn’t bother to check if she was dead, as he pointed his gun at the man inside the car, running for the cover of the front corner panel of the rusted-out vehicle.

Several more shots were exchanged, as Tobias hunkered down beside the tire of the car. Glass shattered, followed by the cry of an injured man. Feeling confident, he looked over the fender of the car as the SUV pulled up alongside, a tall man sliding from the front seat of the truck.

Tobias recognized him immediately from the photos he’d seen of the leader of the Family. Holstering his weapon, he raised both hands in surrender as two other men came to stand beside Kumarin.

“Tobias Marks?” he questioned.

“Sir.”

“Thank you for the early morning workout, although I prefer it to happen between the thighs of a beautiful woman.” He approached hand out, in Tobias’s direction. “Your visit has created quite an uproar.”

“My apologies, it was not our intention.”

“Hannigan told me of your intentions. This,” pointing to the shot-up car and two dead individuals. “Is what happens when greed takes over, without properly identifying who you are trying to steal from. Come, sit inside where it’s warm, and we will sort this out.”

Tobias slid into his rented SUV ten minutes later and pulled his gun from its holster, pointing the barrel at Stetson’s head. “Who the fuck did you call?”

Stetson remained still, “Just the bail bondsman listed on Tymeless’s sheet.”

“And you didn’t tell him it was Hannigan making the deal?”

“No! I used the name I did back when I was working legal, just in case they checked me out.”

Tobias lowered his gun. “I don’t have to tell you we’ve attracted attention.”

“Not with the welcoming committee back there.”

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